I'm a career success coach, leadership trainer, author and speaker dedicated to the advancement of women. I run a career and leadership consulting and training firm -- Ellia Communications -- that offers programs, training and resources for career growth. A former corporate VP, I'm a trained therapist and career specialist, and have worked with over 10,000 professional women and emerging leaders globally. Along with Forbes, I blog for Huffington Post, LinkedIn, and my own Ellia Communications career blog. My book Breakdown, Breakthrough: The Professional Woman's Guide to Claiming a Life of Passion, Power and Purpose, explores the 12 hidden challenges working women face today and how to overcome them. If my work interests you, please visit my website at kathycaprino.com.

The Top 6 Reasons Women Are Not Leading In Corporate America As We Need Them To

As a trainer and leadership developer of women, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of HR and senior executive leaders the past 10 years, about women, growth, and paving the way for women’s ascension to leadership in corporate America. Yet what remains so disappointing and in fact, shocking, is that despite the irrefutable business case for the need to balance corporate leadership ranks with more women, we’re making very little headway – very little progress in the way of effective corporate change is occurring. Yes there are winners of Catalyst and other awards – and great, progressive organizations doing their part – but in the whole of corporate America, we’re not seeing the substantive change that’s necessary. Further, recent studies show that senior women are hit three times harder than their male counterparts in these tough economic times.

I believe there are 6 core reasons why women aren’t advancing to the leadership ranks to the degree we need them to in corporate America. One of the most important factors is that organizations are not digging deep enough to uncover EXACTLY why their organization isn’t fostering women leaders successfully. Leaders and HR directors attempt to address the issue every day, and they commit diversity dollars, initiatives, training programs and networking events to moving the needle, but rarely have the hard data, research and findings from men and women in the organization as to why women are leaving before they reach leadership levels, why they are plateauing or not being promoting effectively into leadership. Thus, their programs and initiatives don’t make a lasting difference.

Before I share what I believe are the 6 reasons why women aren’t leading in sufficient numbers, I’d like to ask HR staff and senior leaders this question:

Do you know (based on sound research and data and frank and open conversations at your company) EXACTLY why women are not sitting at your leadership tables in your organization? Do you have a handle on the specific part of the pipeline where you lose women, and why? If not, what step can you take this month to investigate as thoroughly as possible the barriers to women’s leadership success at your company?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, the very first thing you must do is begin a research and data gathering initiative – conduct a thorough, candid, and probing exploration of what isn’t happening that needs to be, and determine the barriers to women’s growth that are specific to your organization, culture, and enterprise.

The top six reasons why women aren’t leading in sufficient numbers are:

1) The differences between men and women are not fully understood or valued.

It’s an indisputable fact – women and men are different in many core ways, grounded in their neurobiology and their cultural training. (Read Dr. Louann Brizendine’s books The Female Brain and The Male Brain for more info). So much of men and women’s behavior is programmed, hard-wired in our brains, and also culturally influenced. I’ve found, however, that in corporate America (which remains male-dominated at the leadership levels), the differences in women’s style, approach, communication, decision making, leadership values, focus and “energy,” are not at all understood or valued. Many organizations still make women “wrong” (consciously or subconsciously) for their priorities and styles that clash with the dominant culture. Further, the emphasis many women leaders place on connection, empathy, emotional cue-taking, consensus-building, risk-taking, mutuality, and questioning are often misconstrued as a “less-than” leadership style. More multicultural and diversity training must occur for women and men to wholly embrace their differences, and understand that it is diversity and difference that makes us stronger and more competitive.

2) Whole-self authenticity is a must-have for many women, yet impossible still in many corporate environments.

During a class I taught at New York University last summer on managing inclusion and cultural diversity, my students and I discussed the idea of bringing our whole hearts and spirits to our work and our careers – the idea that authenticity and transparency, and being who we really are – and being recognized and appreciated for that — is a vitally important criterion for our career success. A fascinating finding emerged – literally every woman in the class was in complete accord – that authenticity and being able to bring our whole selves to our work is essential to our fulfillment and success. (Check out Brené Brown’s great work on authenticity and vulnerability for more on that.)

But the males in the class vehemently disagreed. They shared their feelings that full transparency at work, and “exposing” all parts of themselves (personal and otherwise) was not at all desirable. They confirmed this with numerous male friends and colleagues, who all agreed that it’s not safe or accepted (or wanted) to be fully transparent and bring their whole selves to the workplace. I’ve seen this as a commonly held difference between men and women in the workplace, again impacted by cultural training and neurobiology. (Again, I am fully aware that many men do indeed bring their full, authentic selves to work.) But what’s vital to remember is that, for thousands of women, if they can’t be real, true, transparent, honest and authentic at work – and can’t be recognized, valued and appreciated for what they bring to the table — they won’t want to follow the leadership at the helm or do what it takes to succeed in their organizations or roles. If the political environment is so crushing, and the competitive terrain so negative that work feels like “theatre” and women have to pretend to be something they are not (which it did for me for numbers of years in my corporate life), then it’s not sustainable, and not worth it. Thousands of women are fleeing corporate America and starting their own businesses to escape what isn’t working for them, and also to create new models of business success and leadership that fit their style, preference, values and priorities.

3) Life, family and work priorities clash fiercely.

Women are still performing the majority of domestic and child care responsibility in the home, even when there are two spouses working full-time. As such, and as long as women are bearing the children in our species, women will not view child rearing and child care in the same way as men do, and will prioritize the responsibilities around it differently. The best article I’ve read recently on this dilemma – as a woman, the challenges around how to be the caregiver you want to be while being the contributive professional you long to be – is Anne-Marie Slaughter’s piece in The Atlantic, Why Women Still Can’t Have It All. For me, every word resonated. Slaughter covered every key dimension represented of the challenges women face today in their quest to become business and political leaders while also balancing what they want to be as parents and care-givers, and what has to change in our work policies to allow these dual priorities to be met. If you’re outdated and closed-minded and believe that work-life balance or integration is a pipedream only for fools, then you’re contributing to the problem.

4) Extreme work demands can drum women out.

The extreme demands of many 24/7 work corporate environments today represent an impasse to many women who wish to prioritize life outside of work more highly. I’ve written before and believe this wholeheartedly – women are not less ambitious than men. It is the COST of ambition – and the struggle women face in pursuing their professional ambitions — that is at the heart of why we have so few women leaders today, and why women are achieving less and not reaching as high as men in corporate America. As Betsy Myers, President Clinton’s senior adviser on women’s issues shared with me recently, women tend to view their work as only one piece of the pie that represents their total life experience. If they’re forced to focus 24/7 on work for a majority of their professional lives, most women will choose not to pay that price.

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Comments

Thanks, Rosie, for your input. While I agree that blame is often wrongly thrown at women, I would say that each of us can (and needs to) be more accountable and responsible for the direction of our lives and careers. Moving this needle of women to leadership is about change on all levels — individual, cultural, organizational and global. Thanks for sharing.

Kathy, Thanks for reiterating the importance of individual, cultural, organizational, and global factors. These are all very important! Every day, every person makes choices that have an impact on women in leadership. My previous comment may have not clearly defined how much I agree that we each play a role in making change (or creating more of the same).

I am an advocate for voting with my dollars–for companies that promote equality, local business, or sustainability as a few examples. Even as individuals, when utilizing our time, leadership skills, or our money, we are extremely powerful in creating impact!

Thanks for your follow-up. And so true – our voices, dollars, energy and personal commitment to the causes we care about deeply all make an enormous difference. To think otherwise means we’re just playing the victim. Appreciate your input.

Kathy great article, for me all points make a lot of sense. I have been doing a fair amount of work on the topic of balancing energies. I believe there needs to be more awareness of the role of the two energies for wholistic development. Future organisational structures and processes like networks, ecologies in nature, heterarchies will be created and facilitated from a space of feminine energy. The last point on accountability is most critical, we need to take accountability for our dreams and aspirations. Interestingly in my country the society applauds and makes role models of women who sacrifice( as understood) for family commitments. That adds to the complexity.

Kathy- Nice article! I especially liked the way you summed it up: change is individual, organizational and global.

What I am individually doing for change is multifold. First, I created my OWN change. I resigned from a senior position and started my own firm where I could be successful and at the same time, create the flexibility I needed at that time. The key here is that I did NOT have to give anything up. In fact, I found out my skills were even MORE valuable that I had realized and I ended up earning substantially more plus learning valuable management skills as CEO of my firm.

Next, I have advocated for and given advice to other women who want to start firms by freely giving my time posting on LinkedIn, individually mentoring fellow alums as well as by publishing 2 books (Small Business Rocket Fuel series) showing others how to start and run successful firms.

In my next incarnation, I am now looking forward to more innovation and change through high growth businesses and, potentially, Board opportunities.

My advice is to start small and just keep growing. Focus on what you CAN do now rather than what you CAN’T do.

Fabulous, Candace. Sounds like you’ve applied your many talents, gifts and capabilities and built your own successful venture, and are helping other women do the same. Amen to that! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for the article, Kathy. Like many similar commentaries, this article is not nearly hard hitting enough. It’s time for women to call a spade a spade. The number one reason that women are not advancing is discrimination pure and simple. Discrimination against women may not be overt in the way it once was, but it is still a major factor limiting women’s advancement in the workplace. And, sadly, it isn’t just men who discriminate, but women who discriminate against other women. Other women are often our own worst enemies. The question is: how do we fix it? Can we fix it? Until men decide that they want to share power, women will not have equal opportunity and equality in the workplace. In the meantime, let’s stop blaming ourselves for our supposed deficiencies.

Thanks, RM. I appreciate your views. As my article shares, however, I don’t agree that the sole problem is men and discrimination. It’s a far more complex issue than that, and in my view, to leave it there misses so many opportunities for change and growth. I’ve been discriminated against myself, and it’s heinous, so I certainly know that it exists, but we’re dealing with a multifaceted dilemma that needs all our best and most empowered thinking, action, and commitment. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, there is a real difference between men and women. Yes, we need authentic, honest, open, collaborative leaders and the world, both men and women are still learning how to be this way. Yes, life family commitments are still taken on by women. And our value of family is under-estimated. If we outsource family, caring for children caring for parents does this create unintended adverse consequences? what do we value in society? One of the unintended consequences of women working in a society that values paid work over the work done in community and with family is an erosion of the care of family. We need to re-think how we can care and value family and be leaders, share leadership in a new way of being in society. Yes, work demands in traditional corporates that are soulless and treat people as machines do not inspire people with soul to want to be that way or stay in corporates or lead that way. Yes, there is more marginalisation than we accept. Hence, women drop out of the system, give up or find alternate routes. Perhaps giving up on the Corporates who are like dinosaurs is the way to go. I have read that the greatestup take of new forms of employment are self-employment and entrepreneurs and a large number of these people are women. Women are leading in different ways then staying in large corporates where cultures can stifle and suppress people. Yes, personal accountability is key.

And a 7th – people underestimate the unilateral, controlling, dominating leadership that exists in organisations that stifles, controls, induces submission, compliance. THis form of leadership can be acted by both men and women. Unfortunately, some women thought they had to take on this style of leadership to become successful in the ranks of the corporates.

As a Management Consultant, many years ago I was selected as I had qualities of listening, empathy, relationship building, group observation and collective leadership. It was the female client in a leadership position who did not want to be on the team as she had learnt, was playing a game of coercive, dominating, controlling leadership and she wanted that style of woman on the team. Often women in leadership positions do not support other women.

Keep up the good work. I would like to see the conversation shift to what we value, and the need to learn and value the skills of collaboration, openness, honesty, vulnerability etc the kind of leadership that enables all to become leaders in their own way and share leadership and fellowship.

Thank you for your thorough response, Deborah. I can’t disagree with any of the points you’ve made. I like your suggestion too of focusing on values going forward, and fostering the kind of leadership that enables all to become leaders.